The present invention relates to acylated carboxyalkyl-saccharides, a method for manufacturing the compound as well as the use thereof in detergents as a complexing agent and bleaching agent activator.
Detergents generally contain tensides, bleaching agents, so-called builders as well as optical brighteners and accessory agents. The bleaching agents are provided for bleaching the materials to be washed, whereby the undesirable staining attendend materials are destroyed by oxidizing or reducing chemicals. Sodium perborate is frequently used as a bleaching agent which above 60.degree. C. increasingly separates perhydroxyl anions in form of active oxygen, thereby being able to remove a variety of stains. At lower temperatures, however, the bleaching action is insufficient, so that so-called bleaching agent activators, such as tetraacetylethylendiamine are used. The activators are perhydrolized by the bleaching agents, setting free active bleaching species, such as per-acids.
The builders serve as complexing agents and predominantly eliminate calcium and magnesium ions.
Presently, the selection of ingredients in detergents useful as bleaching agent activators and builders, is mainly determined by issues relating to environmental protection and energy savings. For this reason, for example, activators based on renewable resources, such as carbohydrates, are employed which are more effective and biologically more compatible. There are also known from DE 2 149 737 and the U.S. Pat. No. 3,634,392 carboxymethylated oligosaccharides which are used in detergents as builders.
Because of their structural properties, the compounds derived from carbohydrates, however, are employed in detergents either only as complexing agents and builders, respectively, or only as bleaching agent activators. Consequently, the detergents require a separate substance for each of the two required functions.